Tabitha Gresty, Viking and Early Medieval English Studies MA
Tabitha is in her first-year of a part-time MA in Viking and Early Medieval English Studies. She discusses the benefits of part-time study, and what she loves about her course.
What made you want to do an MA in this area?
"I didn’t choose this course straight off the bat, I transferred to it from English Studies. I’d incidentally already chosen two medieval modules.
I did English for my undergrad at Nottingham Trent Uni, so it was a bit of a leap from that to Viking Studies, but I just fell in love with doing the Old English and the research methods and looking at things like sculpture and language. Especially Old English – I absolutely loved every second of it – and realised, ‘I don’t want to do the modern stuff; give me the Viking stuff!’.
I was always the kid who had all of the Horrible History books and was always very interested in medieval as an area, but I came to it more from a language basis. I wanted to do Old English and when they said you get to do Old Norse as well, I was like, ‘Where do I sign up?!’."
What’s been the best module so far?
"The one I’m finishing off now, ‘Contextualising Old English’. We got to focus on both reading Old English, continuing from last term, but also looking at Anglo-Saxon health texts, which is the current research that the lecturer is doing, which is really nice. It was incredible learning from her while the research is still ongoing."
I especially enjoy doing the translations. I enjoy piecing it together because it’s almost like a massive puzzle. It’s like doing a massive jigsaw, but with words!
Any staff shout outs?
"All of them! Christina Lee is so supportive. I’ve come on leaps and bounds with my language. We also have Martin Findell, who is just so good at making it seem really cool that we are studying Old English. I think medieval can be seen as a bit stuffy, like it happened eons ago, but Martin helped us to relate to it.
I’ve also worked with John and Jane from the Place Names division, and they’ve both been so supportive in an area I didn’t even know existed! They’ve been so kind and helpful in answering all the numerous questions I’ve had."
What’s your dissertation going to be on?
"I'm looking generally at maternity, relating to some of the health texts we've been studying, so things like birth prognostics, which is basically telling the future of a child, and just looking at how maternity was viewed by the Anglo-Saxons. It’s a subject I’m really interested in and passionate about.
It’s interesting to do a bit of myth debunking, because everybody's assumes that the further you go back in history, the worse women had it and that’s not always the case.
I want to see what's there in terms of research, what kind of representations are we seeing and how does it relate to today."
Why study part-time?
"I originally chose to study part-time as I was considering doing a PhD, but largely it was because I was in the year group that had their entire undergraduate experience during Covid. I decided to do part-time so I could almost make up for lost time.
It’s worked out beautifully, as I’ve managed to have so many different experiences that, had I been studying full-time, I wouldn’t have had the time to do.
I’ve found it an incredibly healthy way to work. I can have the social aspect, have the fun and the downtime, then give as much to the work as I want to.
Part-time study does open-up the chance to work alongside it, to gain some experience, and I've been able to explore so many different types of career paths."
Tell me about being course rep? What made you want to do that, and what does it entail?
"I joined as it was part of my ‘gaining opportunities’ mindset! I wanted to get slightly out of my comfort zone, hear from other students and try and make or at least influence some kind of change.
I'm now also Co-chair of the LCF as well, so having that on my CV is absolutely brilliant. It's increased my confidence, as talking to academics and people from different departments made me very nervous to start off with, but now I can talk to people from loads of different areas quite happily and not feel like I'm the student."
What are your career plans?
"I'm looking generally within the heritage sector, and specifically museums. I managed to meet Clare Pickersgill from Lakeside Arts, who has been so supportive. We had a conversation about getting into museums and what I’m doing, to help me get the experience to make sure I can get a foot in the door."
Hopefully I will end up working in museums and maybe doing some outreach stuff, or maybe some stuff with exhibitions. I’m open to anything really.
What does success look like to you?
"It’s being happy with where you are and the path you’re on. If I got a job in a museum, I would count that as a success, to be honest. I’d be working in a field I love and doing something that I’m passionate about."
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Study Viking and Early Medieval English Studies MA